Open Thread for August 19, 2011

This thread contains all natural and organic flavors, but has not been CSPIA-certified. Open at your own risk. This week? All about the movies. We’ve got Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night and One Day. Plenty of eye candy (Jason Momoa, … Continued

10 Comments on “Open Thread for August 19, 2011”

Is it worth not spoiling myself until I read A Dance with Dragons? I waited for A Feast for Crows to come out in paperback, and was planning on doing the same for ADwD. I got spoiled for the first three books, especially about the events toward the end of A Storm of Swords, and I didn’t think it hurt my enjoyment too much.

I was having a good laugh at Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time” when an idea occurred to me, not just for an article but for a new topic under which to write several articles (not just myself, but others; perhaps taking turns with a particular topic). Here’s the idea: Pop Culture Hubris

There have been numerous examples of celebrities overreaching in the past to satiate their ego or “realize an artistic vision” which plunges them into the mouth of madness (or at least public ridicule). What fascinates me about Murphy in particular is the earnestness with which he pursued a singing career, however briefly, in the Eighties, and the effect it may have had on his career but also on his public perception. Talented? Yes, but talented enough to pull off a multi-tiered career? Not so much.

PCH would take examples from pop culture of artists trying to do something and failing, with attention paid to the amount of ego or arrogance that seemed to fuel such attempts. Did Garth Brooks really need to make a Chris Gaines album? Would Eric Von Stroheim have ever been able to make a version of “Greed” that doesn’t take days to watch? These are just a couple of examples of what I think PCH could be. Think of it as the AV Club’s “My Year of Flops” but expanded to cover more than movies.

Comment of the week! Thank you, Mr. Perich, that has genuinely made my day.

@Trevor this notion of Pop Culture Hubris sounds interesting. Do you think David Hasselhoff, an artist from a similar era, succeeded or failed? And what about personalities who try to achieve similar cross-cultural success in today’s fractured media market? Is it dependant on how seriously they take their music career? Andy Samberg is playing it for laughs, but Donald Glover and and Zooey Decshanel are being serious, who do you is more likely to suceed?

Hey, apparently comments close on The Overview, who knew? I’m finally watching Twilight – let me assure you that making it sync when you’re watching it recorded from TV is tough. Especially when the start (i.e. logos) is cut off. But I’m managing, about half-way through.

1 – a dyspraxic Swan. Damnit Bella, you stole my thing! (Also, my brother hates you because you made it impossible for him to call his daughter Bella). But seriously, I’m all for greater dyspraxic representation in films/TV e.g. Susan in Desperate Housewives definitely is one too.

2 – Forks sees it as a blessing? That’s weird. Oxford hates all the Harry Potter nonsense and it hasn’t even been a location for most of the films.

3 – I know it’s more thinking than overthinking – but the watching her sleep bit is really significant to why their relationship is such a problem and why having it as a mythical archetype for teen girls is so dangerous.

4 – Re: Vampire maturity – in premier modern vampire/werewolf show of our age, Being Human, the age you become a vampire is the limit of your development, making a 40-year old vampire who become one at 13 a real problem because his ability to develop any self-control is just not there. Not sure if Twilight ever bothers to explain this or contrariwise.

5 – the soundtrack has some suspiciously good bands on, with massive indie/pitchfork/hipster/alternative credibility. For me, that means Muse and Radiohead on this one, but as the films go on, they’re writing songs specifically for the film. Thom Yorke, who has an image of being counter-cultural and anti-fame, thought the film was worth writing for. And I have literally no idea why.

And finally – the composer for the film was Carter Burwell, who did the amazing score for the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple, which was, sadly, not their take on the vampire film, but was a very good film with a very good score.

I was quite amazed that, in the many Conan reviews i read, no-one noticed that movie got a full Videogame structure. In the movie there are more than a dozen different fight in every possible setting (snowy woods, villages, pirate’s coves, cities, mines, prisons, cities, boats, ruins, other cities, caves, evil temples) and to tie them all there are little dialogue scenes, some no more than few minutes long, just like videogame cutscenes. To enforce all this there are the fights with the Khalar Zim “sergeants” (noseless, tattoo-face, fatty, octopus master) that acts like real mini-bosses.

It’s weird, all the movie plays like a Mass Effect run: initial explaining cutscene-action-cutscene-miniboss-cutscene-action and so on and on until the final boss.

I know that many action movies follows a similiar pattern but in Conan it’s all so cristal clear that’s impossible not notice that: seriously how many different fight scenes there are exactly?